Known solar heating systems are complex and expensive and are difficult to fabricate and install. Generally such systems employ a flat plate collector including one or more layers of glass over a blackened metal plate, air or water being circulated through tubes or over fins attached to the metal plate. The glass acts as a heat trap to let in the sun's rays but to keep most of the heat from escaping. The sun heats water or air circulating through the collector. If water is used in the collector, the heated water is stored in an insulated tank and is then pumped into the rooms through pipes and radiators and if air is used in the collector, the heat is stored in a bin containing crushed rocks heated by the hot air. When the house requires heat, air is blown through the rocks and into the house through hot air ducts.
In another known solar heating system a tank containing liquid in a heat storage bin is surrounded by non-liquid material such as stones or heat-of-fusion heat storage material. Liquid from the tank is pumped to the top of a solar heat collector and is spread out to flow down over the heat collector sheet for heating during the winter. The hot water is collected in a trough at the bottom of the collector and returns to the tank where the heat is stored and where it heats the non-liquid material. When heat is needed from storage a blower is turned on by a thermostat to blow air through the storage bin to warm the air.
Aside from the foregoing it is also known to provide various combined solar radiation collectors and thermal energy storage devices. In such device there is provided a collector for solar radiation and a reservoir containing a phase change matrix, a heat exchanger being positioned within the matrix for moving a heat absorbing medium through the heat exchanger for heating water, for example, for house heating purposes.